Best Protein Bars UK Reviews and Buyer Guide

Protein is THE most important macronutrient when it comes to building muscle and improving body composition. Proteins are made up of amino acids – the building blocks of life and needed for muscle building and recovery.

Ideally, consumption of protein should fall somewhere around 1.3 – 2 g per kg of body weight per day. If you’re training hard, you’ll want to stay on the upper end, which means you’ll need to consume quite a considerable amount.

One of the most convenient methods for hitting your protein goals is through protein bars – grab them on the go and down one after your workout.

There are plenty of options to choose from, so let’s take a minute to examine exactly what to look for and some of the best protein bars available on the UK market.

Image	Product	Score	Price
Editor’s Choice	Grenade Protein Bar	9.7	Check on Amazon
	Warrior Raw Protein Flapjack	9.2	Check on Amazon
	PhD Smart Bar	8.7	Check on Amazon
Vegan	BodyMe Organic Vegan Protein Bar	8.6	Check on Amazon
	Bulk Powders Macro Munch Protein Bar	8.5	Check on Amazon
	PhD Nutrition Protein Flapjack+	9	Check on Amazon
Best Value	CNP Professional Protein Flapjacks	8.4	Check on Amazon

A Detailed Look at Some of the Best Rated Protein Bars in the UK

As you well know, adequate protein is critical if you’re chasing those gains. While whole food options are ideal, they’re not always feasible. If you’re making it a point to choose real food most of the time, there’s plenty of room in a healthy lifestyle for protein bars.

If you’re going to use protein bars, you may as well go with the top ones on the market. To make life a little easier for you, we’ve rounded up the best. But then we went one step further and took a look at the best standard bars and flapjacks available in the UK — because, let’s face it, sometimes you want to sink your teeth into a chewy bar but other days nothing hits the spot like a tasty flapjack bar.

Here are some of the tastiest bars that we have tried.

What is a Protein Bar?

To put it simply, it’s a nutrition bar that provides larger amounts of protein and small to moderate amounts of carbohydrates and fat. They are also often enriched with vitamins and minerals.

Convenience is the key thing here. These bars are a brilliant way to get more protein into the daily diet. Because they are wrapped and have a relatively long shelf life, bars can be easily thrown into gym bags or kept in desk drawers as an easy and accessible protein source.

There are several different types of protein bars with some marketed strictly as protein supplementation and others as meal replacement bars. The type you purchase should ultimately rest on your health and fitness goals.

Do Protein Bars Really Work?

As with any form of supplementation, the efficacy of protein bars depends on a number of elements. The theory behind them is that ingesting protein after a workout helps build muscle tissue and improve muscle recovery.

Optimal adaptation to resistance exercise can be enhanced by controlling the type, amount and timing of protein consumed. So, while added protein to the diet via protein bars may indeed be beneficial, there are many factors to consider.

Type of Protein

The type of protein used in your bar of choice is the first point to consider, mainly because all protein is not created equal. Two of the most common types used in most protein bars is whey protein and soy protein. While both types contain all of the essential amino acids, whey protein is considerably more bioavailable than soy, making it the superior choice for building muscle mass.

Amount of Protein

You’ve probably noticed while looking at nutrition labels is that the amount of protein in different bars varies quite a bit. How much protein is necessary to elicit the muscle building effects you’re after? Research has shown that 20 grams of protein is sufficient to maximally stimulate muscle protein synthesis.

Timing of Protein

The time you choose to eat one of these bars also has an effect on the efficacy of the protein. Studies have shown that protein consumption pre and post-workout resulted in significant improvements in muscular strength as well as increases in lean body mass and decreases in fat mass compared to ingestion of protein in the morning and evening.

Are Protein Bars Good For You?

They may well offer a convenient and effective way to hit your nutritional targets, but are they actually good for you? That’s a tricky question.

First, you should realise that these bars are considered a processed food. Generally speaking, eating processed foods are not going to make you the healthiest version of yourself.

Second, many protein bars not only offer up hefty doses of protein, they also tote along many other ingredients. If you’ve ever looked at the ingredient list on protein bar wrapper, you know just how many unpronounceable ingredients there really are — most of which are not exactly considered healthy.

Third, some bars are not only loaded with a ton of mysterious ingredients but also artificial sweeteners, excess sugar and more calories than you probably really need.

With all of that being said, there are some companies out there trying to make healthier options for those who rely on protein bars to meet their nutrition and training needs.

There are plenty of protein bars out there that you’d be better off without but there are also more hitting the market every day that are made with decent ingredients and may actually be beneficial to your health.

Bottom line: do your research and choose options with ingredients you can identify and with minimal amounts of sugar. You’ll probably have to spend more on those higher quality bars, but if eating healthy is a priority for you, it’s definitely worth it. What you then have is a convenient and relatively healthy way of getting some extra nutrition.

When is the Best Time to Eat One?

As mentioned above, studies have shown that consuming protein in and around that post-workout window will yield greater training gains than consuming it during other parts of the day.

Protein bars are also useful for filling in nutritional gaps. They can make a handy a protein-rich snack to get you through that afternoon slump and can even be used in a “food emergency” as a meal replacement when you find yourself in a pinch.

It was mentioned above that they aren’t always the healthiest option, but they are leaps and bounds better for you than most other items on the market posing as snack foods.

It’s never a bad idea to have a few quality bars stashed at work, car or gym bag to keep those hard working muscles fed – it’s certainly better than grabbing a chocolate bar when you are peckish. Just don’t go eating protein bars all day long for the bulk of your protein intake. They are simply an extra snack to boost your protein intake based around a decent diet that may also include protein shakes.

How to Choose the Ideal Protein Bar

With so many options available, how does one go about choosing the ideal protein bar? For starters, consider taste — it may be the best option on the shelf, but if it tastes like old cardboard, the chances of you actually eating it are pretty low. Aside from palatability, there are several other factors to consider when choosing the best protein bar.

What difference does the type of protein make?

We discussed earlier the importance of the type of protein used in the bar. It’s been shown that whey protein is considerably more effective than soy, mainly due to its bioavailability, for stimulating muscle protein synthesis. However, if you deal with a dairy intolerance, soy may be your only option.

One more factor to consider with protein types is how quickly it absorbs. For example, whey protein creates increases in blood amino acids levels in under an hour — perfect for refeeding post-workout. Casein, on the other hand, takes longer to actually create an increase in blood amino acids, but lasts longer, with elevated levels lasting over 300 minutes. Ideally, it would be best to have a bar with both faster and slower digesting protein available.

Do you have to be careful with the amount of sugar and total calories in a protein bar?

When choosing a protein bar it’s a smart idea to get into the habit of checking the label. Some protein bars are loaded with more sugar than traditional chocolate bars. Calories are also something to watch out for — if you’re not using the bar as a meal replacement, then it shouldn’t have equal or greater calories than a meal. Ideally, sugar content should be in the single digits (grams) and the total calories should not exceed 300 kcals.

Is there anything else you should look for?

Additives and artificial sweeteners should also be on your radar when choosing a high-quality protein bar. Ingredients such as sorbitol and maltitol, sugar alcohols, can cause gas, bloating and have a laxative effect if you’re not used to it or if you ingest more than your body can handle.

Xylitol is another sugar alcohol that looks and tastes like sugar but has fewer calories and doesn’t raise blood sugar levels — perfect for sweetening up a protein bar for the health-minded consumers who are likely to buy them. However, it too has the potential to cause digestive issues.

Fats are also found in protein bars. While unsaturated fats are the good guys, trans fats should never be listed on the label and levels of saturated fats should be relatively low.

A protein bar with some fibre in it will not only help slow down the digestion of the bar and give your body a slow and steady supply of energy, it will also help keep things moving along at a healthy pace.

Conclusion

Life is busy and, while they may not be the ideal health food, protein bars and flapjacks are, without a doubt, part of the health and fitness landscape. It cannot be denied that they are extremely convenient, particularly post workout.

As you can see, there are some quality, affordable options out there, no matter your specific taste, that will help you increase your protein intake. For us, Grenade certainly know how to make the best tasting protein bar with plenty of flavours to choose from.